Paytm offers non-KYC users option to use gift vouchers

Consumers can still load money into a Paytm wallet even if they haven’t completed their Know-Your-Consumer (KYC) formalities. Paytm appears to be working around the latest directive of the RBI for mandatory KYC, where users can load money into their accounts through gift vouchers on the platform.

But these gift vouchers won’t let you send money to others or send it back to your bank accounts. They also come with an expiry date of one year — a standard practice among players issuing such vouchers.

As reported by TOI, prepaid payment instruments (PPIs) —or digital wallets — are reeling under severe pressure with new regulations kicking in. Paytm has been diversifying into other businesses from its core e-wallet business. Paytm’s move to issue gift vouchers comes as a strategy to minimise the damage to its non-KYC e-wallet user base.

Paytm has been trying to migrate users from a pure-play e-wallet to its channel on the Unified Payments Interface, or UPI, platform. The early impact of the RBI’s guidelines have been felt by companies.

Amazon India has already seen a 30% drop in its e-wallet user base. When contacted, a Paytm spokesperson declined to comment on the matter. According to an industry executive who did not wish to be named, gift vouchers have been operating in the grey area.